Vampire Hunter D: Under the Silver Moon
by Silemara
Summary: The Vampire Mayerling has made off with a beautiful young woman, and Vampire Hunter D has been hired to try and save her. However, not everything is as it seems, who is that pulling the strings from the shadows? My version of a match up between the manga volume 3, the book Demon Death Chase and the film Bloodlust.
1. Chapter One: Beautiful

**Author's notes: In this story D is a Dhampir, not a Dunpel as in the movies, that was a mistranslation on the part of the writers for the Bloodlust movie, and will not occur in this story save as an insult.**

**Disclaimer-I do not own Vampire hunter D, this character and whole concept is owned by Hideyuki Kikuchi, nor do I make any money off of this, if I did there would be more than just two movies, and last but not least the movie Bloodlust, the VHD books, and manga are also not mine, it belongs to someone else. In short I don't own anything at all, let's leave it at that.**

**Key-**

**"Spoken words"**

**'**_**Thoughts**_**'**

**Chapter One: Beautiful **

The distant future...

_It is the year 12,090; after the leaders of the world took aim at one another; the human race was all but destroyed; with no one to lead them and no defense against the creatures that were thought to be a part of myths and folktales, mankind became livestock to their new rulers, forced to live in conditions not seen since the middle ages. Without any challengers, the Vampires rule the earth in what seemed to be an everlasting night. However, as all things must, their reign of fear came to an end. Their numbers slowly dwindling, as those they once preyed upon took arms. With huge bounties on their former masters' heads and the heads of their servants, many mortals have taken up their weapons to hunt their hunters. However, only those with the skill, the intelligence, the strength of body and spirit, and without fear of those who governed them, can become the most elite class of hunters, the Vampire Hunters. Of this class, there is one hunter that is unlike any other, he is a dhampir; a half human half vampire, at war with himself, feared by all, tortured, and alone, he is Vampire Hunter D…_

The Moon, up close it does not appear to be all that impressive, little more than a dusty rock stuck in orbit around the earth, and directing the tides. However, from the earth the beauty of the cold risen full moon knows few challengers, its pale light passing through the night, to create mystery and danger within the shadows. Its silvery light revealing an ancient structure of a noble's castle, jutting up like a knife stabbed in the earth, the old building once majestic, now long fall in disrepair. The ancient keep casting a shadow over the fields covered with simple wooden, solid stone and artful metal crosses, not unlike a grave yard in ages past.

The moon's light cast everything into dark silhouettes as its face gazes farther into a small human settlement. Standing alone in the shadow of the noble castle, the moon light reveals to all that every home and every building to has at least one cross on its roof, as if to ward of the evils the night brings.

The settlement, reminiscent of England during the 1800s is silent, its residents lost in their dreams. However, for some, their dreams slowly became colder and dark, becoming nightmares as a powerful presence approached. Through the faint mist covering the city streets like a gentle blanket, the sound of a dog snarling can be heard as the homeless mongrel slowly pokes its head out of a metal grate, to glare down the street, toward the intruders who would dare enter its domain. Even as it stares, the mutt listens intently as it hears a faint whirling sound, and continues to watch as the many structures the human's placed in the street to protect them from the night, that surround the street breaking and twisting, bent by some unseen force.

The animal paused in its growling as a sudden chill swept across the avenue, as many of the living plants it used to mark its territory, rapidly crumbling as if struck with a sudden frost. The dog stopped making a sound as it sensed a presence as dark as the night itself, getting closer…too close. With a near silent whimper the animal quickly slinks back where it came. As two pale lights quickly race up the street. If anyone was awake, they would have just watched in silence as a team of six pure black cyber-horses with gleaming red eyes, pulling a gold and black lacquered carriage flew up the street, turning the water pouring from a stone fountain into solid icy streams as it pasted. Despite all that is taking place, the townsfolk remain in their beds, their dreams although strange lets their sleep continue undisturbed, as the carriage pulls in front of a richly appointed mansion.

Inside the dark and silent home amid the many rooms, filled with family and servants, one girl lays awake despite the late hour. She stared across her bedroom into the darkness cast by the moon light with large unblinking eyes. The girl is indeed a lovely creature by any standard, with pale skin, brown eyes flecked with gold and long wavy brown hair that if she were to stand would reach passed her waist. She is in a word beautiful, and has an easily seen gentle spirit. Her still form makes no move as the window to her bedroom slowly turns, unlatching itself, and gently opens a crack, allowing the darkness from outside to enter. She does nothing but stay still as the blood red roses beside the window wither and dry, she quivers as the mirror above her vanity cracks with a sharp snap, still she does not move save to curl her hands into a fist. However, as her window is thrown open with a burst of cold wind and mist, her past stillness is forgotten, as she sits up and turns with a gasp.

Looking through the mist and whirlwind of rose petals, there outside of her window dark figure hanging like a creature of the night, with a snap, massive wings open, and the dark shape enters her room. With a flash of red the girl passes out and the intruder picks her up, cradling its prize to its chest, as the source of darkness turns to leave it pause briefly in front of the cracked mirror to look at the figure of the young girl wearing a white sleeping gown, she appears to be held by nothing but air. What thoughts go through this creature's mind as it gazes at the mirror? However, whatever its thoughts were, they did not show them- the intruder turns and leaps out the window without a word, disappearing into the night with only the moon and a skinny dog as witnesses, as the bedroom door opens and a male voice cries out into the night.

"Charlotte!"

**Author's notes- don't kill me just yet; this is my first time ever writing a fan fiction so be nice. This is basically my interpretation of the Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust movie, along with my interpretations of the Manga and the book: Demon Death Chase, tell me if you like it or if I messed up somewhere. –Silemara**

**P.S. Flamers are welcome to give me helpful hints on how to improve my story, however if you are one of those people who say that 'so and so story sucks', then I will use you review to make a paper Mache piñata so I can beat it with a stick, whilst envisioning you.**


	2. Chapter Two: At Any Price

**Author's notes- second chapter ^_^ sorry it took so long, I'm not a really fast writer. In this one I changed dollars to dalas (the same type of money that they use in the books). And I changed D appearance a bit, think the manga version, what can I say, he looks cool.**

**Disclaimer-I do not own Vampire hunter D, or make any money off of it.**

**Key-**

**"Spoken words"**

**'**_**Thoughts**_**'**

**Chapter Two: At Any Price**

Two middle age men stood under the blazing frontier sun despite the extreme heat, focusing on aiming their rifles off into the distance as if waiting for someone or something, to come down the narrow dirt road leading to the ruins of the long abandoned church, on which they stood. As the sun light played its endless dance with the shadows, the wind dancing in time to create sudden movements that had the men's fingers twitching on their pulse rifles triggers. Suddenly one the rifle men tense at the soft clump of a horse's hooves whispering over the breeze. One rifleman signals with a hand, the men on the rooftop, and more men hidden in the many crevasses adjusted their scopes slightly to get a better view at the seemly empty road.

"Here he comes!" one of the marksmen warned the others.

Even as they watch the windblown road with their high powered weapons several of the men were shaking with fear, sweat sliding down their faces, some pause to wipe their faces before turning back to the task at hand. As they looked through their scopes they could just make a dark rider approaching at a calm pace, the horse's hooves making a soft sound in a duet to the rider's long cloak whipping in the wind as tumble weeds rolled across the sandy earth.

The church once a place of holy worship now lies in ruins ravished by time's unforgiving hand. It was clear from what remained, that a battle had brought about the buildings destruction, although any useful remains, organic and mechanical had long since been taken by scavengers, picking their way through the dead.

Bringing his mount to a stop, the rider dismounted with unusual grace, a strange grace that continued to follow the rider's movement towards the entrance of the building, stepping calmly through the ruins of the once massive wooden doors, stopping only once he had crossed the threshold of the church. The interior of the church wasn't much better than the outside, no pews remained or rather no pews still in one piece, the once lovely stain glass windows were shattered into pieces, sunlight streamed in from the collapsed ceiling, illuminating the area and a small rickety table standing next to the door.

Throughout the ancient destruction one thing remained relatively and rather strangely untouched, a life sized statue of the virgin mother and before it an old man bound to a wheel chair, sits and prays. A pray long forgotten in most frontier settlements

"Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of your womb Lord Jesus Christ..."

The rider watched the old man for a moment, only to shift his gaze to the second person in the room, a younger man wearing the simple dark colored pant and tan vest with a white shirt that was the common attire of the wealthy men on the frontier, the only small splash of color was a blue scarf around his neck, his left arm bound in a sling. The young man strode past the older man, stopping a good twenty feet from the stranger in black.

Taking a moment to study the other, the man if the stranger could be called a man; the stranger appeared to be rather young, in his early twenties at least, standing well over six and half feet tall, he was slender but muscular, almost deathly pale, with a narrow face and noise framed by waist length black hair. His eyes the younger man noted, were hidden behind the wide brim of his traveler's hat, which was set with a fist sized opal, the rider despite the heat was clad from head to toe in black leather armor, with knee high boots, a studded belt hung loosely around his narrow hips, both forearms cover by studded gauntlets, his cloak was made of a strong black material inlayed with a dark scarlet color, finally about his throat was a black and red striped scarf which from beneath a blue gem peeked.

However, it was not the stranger's garb that caused him to pause longer than what most would consider being polite, but the man himself, he was handsome and beautiful with a very dark and dangerous presence about him. All in all, this made for an impressive figure; however, it was the massive two hand sword strapped to the hunters back that held his attention, it looked like it would be difficult to wield in battle, but at the same time held a strange elegance to it. Swallowing rather loudly the young man quickly composed him-self and spoke.

"We've been expecting you. I'm Alan Elbourne, and I'm the one that summoned you here today for a reason." He paused in his words as though waiting for some kind of reaction from the other man.

_'No…this is no man, he's something else entirely_.'

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a stone falling, the younger man turned to glare at one of the riflemen

_'Idiots!'_ Elbourne was broken from his thoughts once more by a soft, emotionless voice, harsh from lack of use, "Go on. I'm listening." It was almost like the hunter before him had no concern for the potential danger above him whatsoever.

Making note of this; Elbourne nodded to himself and walked a few feet away. He paused as though trying to decide how to continue "It's about my sister, Charlotte…" at this the strange hunter looked at the small table to his right, studying the picture of a young woman barely more than a girl.

"Two nights ago she disappeared. She was in bed, sleeping; it was the middle of the night. Several people told us they saw a carriage outside our house. The carriage ... belonged to Meier Link, the vampire. I organized a search party of fifty men, but it was no use; we couldn't find them." Here he stopped for a moment, remembering what had happened next, they had been ridding after the thief when disaster stuck its ugly head in the air "We were ambushed." He paused, lost for a moment in the past- when they had rode out, only to have both men and horses torn to shreds by an unseen monster.

"... Took my sister and killed my friends." Turning the younger Elbourne tossed a money pouch onto the table, where it slid stopping next to the picture frame.

"That's just a down payment. You'll get the rest when you find her. Ten million dalas, but you better move fast; you've got some competition. I've hired the Markus Brothers, and they've got a head start on you." Elbourne couldn't help but sound slightly smug about the whole thing; nothing annoyed a vampire hunter then the thought of others going after the same prize, it was an innate arrogance in all hunters…at least that's what he thought, little did he know it but he was in for a rude awakening.

"I don't think so." Spoke the emotionless vampire hunter.

"Huh?" Elbourne was shocked, it sounded like the hunter could care less about what happened to sister, that's why he had put her picture on the table, she was beautiful, no one could say no to her, she was sweet and gentle as an angel, but apparently this young man could.

The hunter continued "It may be too late for her. Your sister may already have been tempted. What then?"

Elbourne snapped at these words, how dare he "You have to get there before that happens - what do you think we're paying you for?" he would have gone on, but sharp voice cut in "That's enough!" it was the older man who had been praying up till now, manipulating the controls beneath his hand, he turn is motorized wheelchair to face the hunter. The old man's clothing was similar to his son only with a ribbon of red, instead of a scarf of blue, in his free hand he clenched his hat, taking a breath the elder Elbourne spoke again

"My son is emotional; please excuse him. This has been difficult for all of us. If you knew my daughter, you'd understand; she's kind and beautiful, and her loss is more than this old soul can bear." He paused for a moment, try to say what he knew may happen "Now, I need to ask you something: if you find her changed, can you see that her death is without suffering. Be kind to her, please."

A look of pure horror flashed across the younger Elbourne's features, his eyes going wide in disbelief.

_'No! This can't be happening! Father can't seriously considering…'_ as these thought raced through his head, the younger Elbourne's thoughts left his mind to become a vocal cry "No! No! We can't do that; it isn't right. No! She won't be changed! You're talking about your daughter!"

The mere thought of what his father was suggesting was horrifying to the younger man, but once again the old man's words cut him off "Alan, listen to me. It's not easy to ask him for this, but it's something that must be done. I'm sorry." With this he turned back to the hunter who had remained silent "Do you understand?" he asked him.

"I understand your position," the hunter said, his voice unaffected by all of this, "but ... ten million dalas is not enough."

Alan couldn't believe the nerve of this guy, "What? How dare you!" he had the audacity to demand more money when his sister's life was in danger, right after suggesting that she might become a monster! With this, he signaled the riflemen to prepare to fire. Before they could, however, the older man commanded them to halt their actions

"Stop it! hold your fire! I said stop!" seeing that the riflemen had followed his words, he paused for a long moment, studying the hunter, while his son had no respect of half-bloods he knew that the life of one was difficult, frankly he wanted the best hunter possible, and the best was this creature who stood before him. "I'll double the price. I'll give you twenty million. Just bring her back…one way or the other."

At these final words, the hunter who had not moved since entering the church, walked over to the small table and picked up the pouch of dalas. To this action, the old man lowered his head; the hunter had accepted his request.

**Author's notes: That's all folks, I know it has been a long time, but I will not be forgetting this story again. Check back on Sundays for an update. I will be getting the next two chapter rewrites up by Saturday and a new chapter by Sunday.**

**-Silemara**


	3. Chapter Three: The Competition

**Disclaimer-I do not own Vampire hunter D, this character and whole concept is owned by Hideyuki Kikuchi, nor do I make any money off of this, if I did there would be more than just two movies, and last but not least, the movie Bloodlust, the VHD books, and manga are also not mine, it belongs to someone else. In short I don't own anything at all, let's leave it at that.**

Chapter Three: The Competition

The night was pitch black as a swarm of bats flew overhead, their high-pitch squeaking and the flutter of their wings the only true sound in the night. This uneasy peace held until the dark was split by the pale cast of a false sun's light. the pale beam of light fell to the earth, illuminating buildings and structures of a small settlement hidden by the shadows, of these structures the most central of them all is the town's well.

The light grows in brightness as the source draws nearer, banishing the shadows around the well and revealing a lone drunkard sitting next to it, his bottle still in hand. As the light brightens a faint humming sound broke the stillness…like that of an engine running, but who would have such a thing out in this desolate frontier? The drunkard doesn't stir as the source of the noise revealed itself, the vehicle if one would be so bold as to call it such, was a strange oblong shape with massive wheels, although massive few details could be made out the dim light and thick clouds of steam made by the engine.

"Huh…uh…huh!" mumbles the old drunkard as he awakens to the strange vehicle pulling up in front of him. No sooner than it coming to a stop the side door burst…showing nothing other the blackness within, nothing that was until a massive hand reach out and grab the poor red nosed drunkard, pulling him up and off his feet to face the darkness. As if the man's night couldn't get any worse a deep, cold voice asks him a single question, "Did you see a carriage go by here with four horses in front?" The drunkard franticly shakes his head.

If possible, the stranger lifts the man even higher in the air, the drunkard having his air flow almost cut off, starts to strangle in a vain attempt to break free "Let me go… let me go … le…" he pleads, but the stranger only gives him a rough shake "You're lying." He states, reaching out with his other hand the stranger turns the drunkard's head to one side, revealing the twin pair of puncture wounds on the man's neck; suddenly the drunkard twists the stranger's hand way to snarl at the shadows before him transforming into a lesser vampire, his teeth elongating into razor sharp canines and his bloodshot eyes bleeding over to become completely red.

The drunkard vampire leaps forward, teeth snapping.

Shiinnk!

But with a quick sound, an arrow lodges itself into the heart of the vampire, with enough force to send the creature flying into the depths of the well. Silence falls like a death shroud…then a faint plash sounds.

Nothing moved for a moment, and then seemly from all around a very quiet sound reaches the ears of the man in the vehicle, a very faint growling sound.

"Oh, damn; we got company…" the voice in the vehicle whispers.

Around the vehicle the former inhabitants of the village start to stir, snarling into open air, not just one either, rather about sixty or seventy newly made lesser vampires, both the men, the women and the children of this little village and been turned.

"… Lotsa company."

In union, the poor souls circled the vehicle, heedless of two devices that rotated and flashed open, reveling themselves to be lights… but not just any lights but lights in the shape of crosses. As the light fell upon them the vampire victims fell back as if burned, the driver seeing an opening in the surrounding vampires, drive forward the vehicle's tires shrieking as they sped through the town, running over those in the way.

But even most of those who were hit by the solid moving mass that should have been killed on impact stood as if they had merely tripped, simply being ran down was not enough, although some did not rise as their chest, there by their hearts, had been crushed by the massive wheels.

Even with the high speed of the vehicle the undead villagers where catching up. A few even got close enough to leap up onto the vehicle, ripping at the cross shaped windows and grasping the metal mesh on the other side, only to get shot in the face. While this was happening others were trying to open the door, but these too met their fate on an arrow bolt in the chest; Shots continued to rain out as the vehicle raced around the corner.

Up ahead of the chase scene, a massive cross tethered in the wind creak, the cables holding it snapped as few lesser vampires cut at the lines, and the wooden thing came crashing to the ground, "Look out!" cried an unknown voice, with a crash the vehicle went skidding down the lane almost flipping on its side, with a loud scrapping noise mammoth piece of steel came to a halt.

"Oh, man. Is everybody OK?" asked the voice of the man who had tossed the drunk in the well. "Yeah." Said a female voice,

"Uh…huh;" this reply from the person who had cried out the warning.

"Do you believe that? The place is overrun with them. He musta been here already... Well, c'mon…" Continued the thrower, as he opened the door and stepped out, in front of him stood a large hill covered with graves, some of them it looked like the occupants had dug themselves out.

The strange man raised his bow, standing at about six foot six the man was built like a wall, his shaggy black beard and hair giving him a slightly insane look, "ready or not, here they come. Its zombie time." He said, with manic like glee.

Behind him, braced against the door was a younger woman, with long blond white hair and pale blue green eyes, dress all in a skin tight red jumpsuit, and packing a rather large handgun. Stand on the top of the vehicle was young man, thin as a rail, with red hair tied back, dressed in a dark maroon jumpsuit "Yeah, come and get it, zombies!" he shouted into the air as he flipped open two thin crescent fan like blades. "Amen to that." Replied another man who looked to be slightly older, bald with across painted on his face, if the wielder of the bow was a wall, this man was mountain, standing at least seven feet tall, his weapon of choice was a large straight pole.

"Leila, are you there?" came a soft voice from the vehicle, it appeared that there were five members to this strange band. "It won't take long, Grove. Just… stay in the tank." Replied the girl Leila, with a slight turn of her head, in the tank a young man with the same pale hair and blue eyes looked up, but said nothing.

At the top of the hill the village residents gathered, the moment held…With a cry the undead raced down the hill; ready to feast on the flesh of the living.

the man with the bow raised his weapon and an hand filled with arrows "Can't load!" he shouted, if this was meant to give hope to the enemy it didn't last long as a hail of arrows fell from the sky, turning the would be feasters into pin cushions.

The younger man on the tank leapt off, spinning his blades in his hands, left and right heads were cut off and when flying.

A female vampire raced towards Leila only to be shot through the chest with a single round, but still it walked on getting closer until it could almost bite, only to end up eating a bullet.

The mountain man spun his staff impaling three undead on both side before using it like a bat to send the monsters flying.

As the second to last vampire was taken down with arrows, the very last one in the sake of self-preservation took off running back up the hill, "Not so fast, buddy." Whisper the man with the bow as his target vanished over the hill, raising his bow so that it pointed almost direct straight up "And… fire!" the arrow arched over the hill and disappeared, a moment later there was a cry of pain that was silenced. "Gotcha!" the man exclaimed with triumph. "Rest in peace … huh?" he pause as if he was listening for something.

"You hear that?" he asked, as he looked over the corpse covered road and hill side. The others in the group paused listening intently. A soft clumping sound of horse shoes whispered in the night

"Sounds like a horse." Replied the younger man

"It's moving… uphill. Let me try." The archer whispered, raising his bow and closing his eyes as he slowly moved his aim up the hill "Right ... right about" the girl by the tank took a deep breath something was wrong, "... right there!" with a snap of its string the arrow went flying, zipping past the grave markers that covered the hill, and yet strangely not hitting anything in its path.

Just as the moon reflected off the arrow's shaft, a pale hand snatched it out of the air and away from its target, with a cry the horse reared up on to its hind legs, causing the riders cloak to raise up as well, like wings on a creature of the night, the rider's figure outlined by the pale moon. With a thump the horse stood back down, looking slightly over his shoulder the young rider glared at shooter and snapped the metal arrow shaft in half by just closing his hand.

Every one stood in shock silence, then someone started clapping…it was the shooter. "Beautiful, just beautiful. I applaud you, stranger. Tell me what you're doing here. If we're in the same game, we should be friends. Tell me your name. Mine's Borgoff, Borgoff Markus." The big man said. "The big guy over there is Nolt, he's the second bother." Borgoff continued "The skinny guy is Kyle, he's the fourth brother, and the girl is Leila she's the youngest. There is one other brother but he's infirm and in the tank, that all of us, how about you?"

The black clad rider was silent for a moment and spoke "D…" and with that one word spoken the dark rider turn his horse and rode down the opposite side of the hill. Borgoff smiled,

"Ah, so that's the guy, the dhampir hunter. I've heard about him. He's amazing." He said with a note of admiration in his voice.

The other didn't agree… "Wake up, Borgoff!" snapped Kyle as he threw his hands up "He's the competition, not some buddy of ours. C'mon, what are we doing here, we just helped him, think about it."

"Yeah, he's right, I agree with him about that. We help him too much and he'll take all the money. If it wasn't for us, he'd be dead by now. We do the work and he gets the reward." Agreed Nolt, which as strange agreeing with Kyle was not something he did every day.

Borgoff just kept smiling as he went around pulling arrows out of numerous corpses on the hill

"Ah, you boys should relax. We just did the famous dhampir a little favor is all." He stated as he ripped a rather stubborn arrow out.

Kyle snorted in disbelief, "A little favor we can't afford."

Before Kyle could continue, Borgoff startled him by asking something a little strange. "Hey, y'ever hear the one about the owl and squirrel?" Borgoff's younger brothers just stared at him, wondering if he had finally lost his mind, Borgoff continued as if he hadn't noticed the way they were looking at him. "Squirrel works all summer storin' away stuff for the winter, all kinds of nuts and seeds…works real hard. Then one day just before the first snow he goes outside for one last look around when all of a sudden this owl swoops down and… grabs him, carries him off. "Ah, what a shame," says the squirrel; "'cause what's gonna happen to all that good food?"' he looked back at his brothers to see their reaction.

There was silence, then Nolt burst out laughing and slapped Kyle on the back "Aw, that's a good one."

"Yeah, hilarious…" Sarcasm didn't drip, it poured from Kyle's voice.

"You get it, you guys?" asked Borgoff as he stood up with a hand full of arrows "That stupid squirrel is all I can... Leila!" the other brothers turn around to see their little sister jump on to her small mobile command vehicle, barring a strong resemblance to a motorcycle "Hey, Leila, what's the rush?" Borgoff asked her, but he would never get an answer as she took off in cloud of dust.

"…What's with her?" asked Kyle.

**VHD**

D rode through the night making excellent time, while the dark did present danger to most travelers the monster that inhabited the area could sense that this strange man was more dangerous then themselves and wisely stayed away.

"Well well…this should be interesting." Came a voice from D's left hand.

"The Marcus clan, they're said to be the most highly skilled hunters on the frontier" the little parasite paused for a moment "You've heard of them too, haven't you?"

Unsurprisingly D didn't bother to grace the question with an answer, but still the hand pressed on undeterred

"The Nobility they've brought down easily number in the triple digits. And they're cruel and ruthless to boot! They say no hunter who goes after….the same Noble as them lives to tell the tale."

Left Hand smirked "Whatever could this all mean?"

He paused again then said on a more serious note "You better be extra cautious this time around."

The silent rider said nothing, guiding his horse through the rough terrain without an indication that he heard.


	4. Chapter Four: Of Morons and Fools

**I'm back, sorry this update is so overdue. On with the usual sad, boring disclaimers, that people for the most part don't read…**

**Disclaimer-I do not own Vampire hunter D, this character and whole concept is owned by Hideyuki Kikuchi, nor do I make any money off of this, if I did there would be more than just two movies, and last but not least, the movie Bloodlust, the VHD books, and manga are also not mine, it belongs to someone else. In short I don't own anything at all, let's leave it at that.**

**And Thank you for the nice review from vampirehunterDfan217, just for you this chapter is a bit longer than the others. Let this be proof that Reviews are the milk and cookies of a writer; it makes us feel good, and helps us to improve our writing style, to put it bluntly the more reviews the faster I will try to write.**

**VHD**

Chapter Four- Of Morons and Fools

With little sound the creatures of the dark slipped away at the presence of the horse and its rider, now while a horse was a very fine meal to most nocturnal mutants and a human rider nice little snack. There was something very off about this rider, the horse was just like any other, but the rider left a sense that attacking him would leave one in several smaller pieces. With this thought in many minds they did nothing as the rider raced passed their hiding places, even as eerie disembodied voice spoke

"So you're outnumbered, four to one; so what? They do have a head start, but - but when the sun comes up, the heat will slow 'em down." If one had been close enough they would come to the realization that the voice was coming from the rider's left hand…odd to say in the least.

The vampire hunter made no reply as he guided the horse with unnatural skill over an open gorge and up onto the road, a relic of the ancient past, smooth and flawless even after hundreds of years. Despite being old, the way was surprisingly well lit, running along the side rails were tall slender lamps that ran the length of the highway clearly marking the way.

**VHD**

hours later…

The sun beat down on the windblown sands of the desert with unforgiving heat, this was one of many waste lands left after the war, and it like many was not a place that even the nobles would travel through, unless they were desperate for shelter or for a short cut to the other side. "Speaking of, ah, sun and heat, I know I don't need to remind you of your susceptibility. It's called heat syndrome, and the last time you ignored it, you almost…" "Don't worry" interjected D; his hand was silent for a moment "I hate it when you say that." D rode off the road as it disappeared under the sand, coming to a stop he dismounted with fluid grace "Sunshine; good. I'd like to stop now. If we hurry we can catch up. They had a big head start, y'know." Left Hand commented, as D stopped lying in the soft sand were two long straight grooves, tracks from a carriage. "Tracks… let me see…" ordered Left Hand, D knelt down one knee without a sound, stretching out his hand as he did so, placing it palm down on the bed of the track. " Yes, OK… these are definitely… they're them… six hours old I'd say..." a moment of silence "OK. I'm suffocating now."

D lifted his hand but remained kneeling in the soft sand, the only sound was that of the harshly blowing wind, but for slight moment there was a soft sound, so subtle it seemed a trick of the wind "Hey, what was that?" spoke Left Hand with a slight note of fear in its voice, nothing answered him "That's funny; I could have sworn I heard something..."

"Quiet…" interrupted D's softly spoken voice "…Sand Mantas, most likely." he had barely finished speaking when the desert floor and dune erupted, sending a massive cloud dust into the air. From within the cloud rose massive shapes, the creatures that appeared looked for the entire world like the ancient Mantas that roamed the oceans before the war, these creatures like many where mutated and twisted by both the effects of the war and the nobles. Now instead of moving through water they moved through sand, their once sleek skin harden and ruff like bones with massive spikes along their bodies that helped them move through the ground with ease. These behemoths would leap from the ground in large herds in their search for anything tasty that was dumb enough to enter the desert.

D stood even as Left Hand cried out "Ah! Ahhh… yaaaaah! Sweet blasphemy… sand mantas galore! Talk about your prehistoric pigeons. They're filthy animals, y'know, they're just… filthy! Well, I…I guess we better just turn back… it's a shame, really, 'cause you know, we could… hey, whoa." Left Hand was startled as D proceeded to mount his horse "hey, now…" once mounted D kicked the cyber horse forward, Left Hand protesting the entire way. One could say that Sand mantas where one of the many ways the nobles had for the most part kept their prey from moving into the desert where it would be harder for the nobles to hunt them, because of the way the mantas hunted it would be suicide to try to pass under the gliding monsters, as they could dive-bomb down onto their prey, despite this there was one way to get pass such beast… although the manner in which it could be done, for some lead to an early grave.

"No… go back, man, go back, now, c'mon…you're crazy, c'mon, man…" the horse continued forward "please, let's' just go back…" the horse started to pick up speed, running to a full gallop and leapt into the air "nonooo!" Scream Left Hand as the horse landed on the back of one of the mantas, racing over it thick bone like hide, then leaping once more onto anther's back, from there back into the open air narrowly avoiding a another manta's circular jaws as they snapped shut. The horse landed safely on the other side of the herd and continued its headlong dash across the sand.

"That… that was good, OK, now, we survived that, could we stop?" inquired Left Hand, D said nothing "Did…did you ever hear the expression 'too close for comfort'? That…that was damn uncomfortable." D just rode on, passing ancient ships and buildings from the last war, crossing barren waste lands, and finally entering a wetter more green area. As he guided his horse over some boulders by a water fall D noticed that the tracks suddenly left the road to go into the surrounding forest.

**VHD**

Some hours later…

D stood on a hill top overlooking a clearing in the forest on the other side of the desert, the sun was setting, painting the sky in reds, gold, and purples. However it wasn't the sky that held the vampire hunter's attention, but a shape in the clearing, it was rectangle about two hundred feet long and one hundred twenty-five feet wide, and the most interesting thing about this building was that it blended almost perfectly in with the background. "What is it …" asked Left Hand "a resting house? I didn't think anybody had those anymore. They must be in there. Wow, it blends in nicely." D watched as a small, fluffy, cute, woodland rabbit ran out into the clearing, after a moment it must have gotten too close to the structure, for in a blink of an eye a deadly laser bolt opened on the buildings outer wall and fried the little critter to a burnt crisp.

It would appear that the resting house was well protected, but then that would be expected by anything built to shelter nobles during the day. Even so every good security system can be tricked; D picked some small acorns from the forest floor, and walked toward the resting house. As he got within range of the still smoking remains of the animal he started to flick the acorns in the air with his right hand, naturally the laser fired on the movements of the acorns as they tracked the acorns they were unable to track D's movements. In short order D stood right next to the resting house, the secret to its camouflage was seen when one got close, the walls where all covered in a mirror like metal which reflected the landscape and D's own pale refection back at him. Resting his hand on the surface as Left Hand spoke after a moment "OK… oh, here we are. I… I see 'em."

"How many are there?"

" Two. I think. A man ... and a woman."

"Look out for the exit door".

D turned to his right and slowly proceed to walk the length of the resting house, Left Hand mumbling along the way " No door ... no door there ... still no door... no ..." they continued this as the sun started to sink below the horizon, within the resting house something started to stir with the fading of the sun, "Are you sure ... about that door ...?" the sun drop lower, the shadows lengthened with the coming night " No ... no ..." if they didn't hurry the night would soon be upon them, drawing out the noble's full power, even the day worlds creatures seemed to sense that there was something dark approaching, their gentle calls to each other falling into silence. Their silence allowed for a new sound to enter the approaching twilight, a slight humming sound that got louder and louder as its source came closer.

"What was that?" inquired a started Left Hand, confused for a moment; D calmly looked over his left shoulder to see the flickering light of a motorcycle on a fast approach to the resting house. The vehicles' rider was female, with pale blond hair and wearing a pair of blue goggles over her eyes, the one odd thing about her whole set up was she was carry what appeared to be a large bazooka on one shoulder…

With a cruel smile as her goggles' targeting system locked onto the half-breed, she raced towards D. however before she could fir the resting house's defense systems came online and opened fire on the female hunter, as the lasers rained down on her, she shifted her bike left and right in a harder to hit zigzag pattern through the lethal hail, "She's out of her mind!" exclaimed Left Hand, only to shut up when suddenly she down shifted and pressed a small red button on the handle of the machine, this allowed a small jet burst under the bike, launching it into the air almost three stories up.

Twisting the bike at the last moment, the wheels hitting the side of the building, this along with her momentum allowed her cruise on the side of the building, defying the laws of gravity. The sun, not unnoticed by both hunters, dropped beneath the horizon, the moment it did so the door of the building opened as a series of panels folded and slide together, revealing the black inter of the resting house. From this darkness a four horse team, drawing a carriage sprang forth.

"Door! Door!" Left Hand shouted to D, drawing his attention onto the hunt and away from the crazy girl. Even as her targeting system locked onto the driver of the carriage "You're dead!" she snarled and opened fire, the shot was made of liquid metal that would quickly cool into shrapnel, a deadly weapon to be sure. However, much to her shock the vampire merely lifted part of his cape, the cape acted like a living thing twisting and turning into a large wing, which the liquid shot hit only to reflect back at the sender, the girl could do nothing except watch with wide eyes as the shot separated into smaller hot shrapnel pieces that penetrated her bike, killing the engine, another smaller pieces struck her shoulder, making her grunt in pain, with a crash the bike hit the ground and slide to a stop beneath a large tree dropping its rider on the way. The young huntress gasped and curled up into a ball as pain raced through her body.

The noble's carriage raced on without slowing down, passing rocks and trees it barreled it way through the forest, and into an ancient tunnel carved into the rock face, like the bridge it too was light by never ending light, showing the way. As the carriage entered the tunnel a shadow drop onto the roof, a slight pause the noble turned his head to look behind him. The noble like most nobles was very handsome, pale skin, white blond hair, deep red eyes and dressed in the formal wear the vampire were so known to like, although if possible even more handsome quite the opposite could be almost be said of the hunter kneeling on the roof. With both hunter and prey's cloaks whipping in the wind the noble slowly stood up, watching the young hunter with cold eyes, as the younger creature reached for the long sword on his back.

"I'm here for the young woman." D stated.

The vampire smiled faintly "I wouldn't recommend it, dhampir. Taking on a vampire at night is a mission for morons and fools…which are you?" at the hunter lack of response the vampire lord continued

"You may be scum who hunt people down for a living, but I've no wish to pointlessly shed blood." Perhaps he could dissuade the hunter before someone got hurt…

"Return the girl to me" so much for that idea.

"I took her because I wanted her; you should try to do the same…That is if you can handle fighting a **Noble** at night!"

Without a word D lunged forward drawing his sword and slashing at the young noble in one smooth motion, only to have his target vanish, and reappear behind him. D narrowing his eyes followed through with his stroke, twisting to slash behind him, the vampire again disappeared and reappeared farther to D's right, hoping to catch the hunter off guard with a swipe of his claws, which had lengthened to being over two feet long, harder than the strongest iron, and razor sharp. Despite the vampire's speed the hunter was just as quick, the vampire was forced to change his strike into a block the following slash from the hunter's blade, their weapons locking together.

the young lord was surprised although he didn't show it, the half-breed hunter was stronger than any dhampir he had crossed before, and he a noble was straining to hold the strike at bay. With a massive shove he was able to push the hunter away, D flipping in the air twisting to land on the back of one of the lead horses.

The vampire halted his attack for a moment, remembering rumors and stories of an infamous hunter "Your face, your skill… I've heard of you before. Any noble would pale at the mention of your name…So, you're D."

"I've heard of you too." The hunter wordless confirmed his identity, "They say of all the nobility…only one young lord is praised by his subjects for his virtue. I believe his name is Mayerling." Although D had been told that the vampire's name was Meier link, it was not uncommon for humans to butcher the pronunciation of various vampire names, as many were left to vague translations or the humans were just too busy trying to survive to talk about semantic.

The vampire smiled slightly at the correct translation of his name "I've always wanted to meet you, one way or another." He told the hunter

"And now you have."

It was time for this friendly chat to end "I've done nothing to the humans; she's here by her own choice, dhampir. So unless you're the kind of man who would take a woman against her will for the money in it…and I'm sure it's a lot…I suggest you save your sorry ass now and leave us to travel in peace."

"I would if I could believe you, Mayerling. Your credibility, however, is less than impeccable under the circumstances. You kidnapped the girl."

Mayerling snared, pushing with all of his strength, snapping his claws at the hunter, slashing horizontally, grinding his weapon into the wall. Despite the powerful blow the hunter was able to jump clear of the attack, bring his own weapon in a down word strike; cutting into the noble's chest spilling, crimson red blood into the air. As D brought his sword back for the finishing blow a small feminine voice cried out in fear…

" Mayerling!"

D hearing the voice glanced down at the carriage, his hesitation prevented him from blocking or avoiding Meier's side swipe. The blow sent D flying off of the carriage, twisting at the last minute D was able to catch himself, stopping his backwards momentum with his….left hand…much to Left Hand's discomfort

"Oh, my nose, my nose! What happened…what'd…. what'd I miss?"

"She called out his name. It may be true, what he said." Whispered D with uncertainty

"No; she's just ignorant…she's a child. She doesn't know him yet. She doesn't know what he's capable of."

**VHD**

**Author's Notes: The name of our dear vampire in the books was Mayerling, however in the film it was changed to Meier Link due to mistranslation just like Dhampir was translated into Dunpeal. Besides I think Mayerling sounds a little more vampire-ish. **


End file.
